Mild Misty Mechanical Monday

This Ride: 20.3 miles
Kona Distance: 4,908.5 miles
Month to date: 269.5 miles
2010 Total: 5,395 miles

Yes, the alliteration can get worse. But this one is pretty descriptive.

It was 48 degrees at the start. Let me tell you, that is starting to feel warm in the morning. By the end of this week, we might reach that as a high for the day, so I’m not complaining.

It was foggy at the start, so foggy that we needed to wipe eye wear every mile or so. It was so foggy that I had water dripping off my helmet onto my face a few times. It tended to soften the sounds all around.

We saw wildlife. There are more bunnies out than I remember at any time except during the early morning summer rides. We caught one in a spot where the bunny led the peleton for about 25 yards. Did you know bunnies can do at least 14-15 mph? We also saw deer. A pretty large buck crossed our path twice. Lit up as we were, and chatting loudly, I don’t think we were in any danger of startling him. He kept his distance too.

Five of us rode, and it was a nice morning. On my way to the Rusty Bridge I picked up a piece of wire in my spokes, chain, and derailleur. It took me half a minute to untangle the mess.

This could have ruined my day!

On the way back north on the trail, I felt softness in my rear tire and stopped. The flat fairy had paid a visit. That’s my first flat on these Continentals (1000 miles) and my first flat since June 24 (3200 miles ago). Clint and Bryan stayed with me and I changed the tire. I found a small wire that had punctured the tube. Feeling good about the repair, we pushed off. I noticed a very slight bump feeling as we continued, but we couldn’t see anything. Sure enough, within a short amount of time, I had flatted again. This time Clint took the lead, changed the tire, found a small piece of glass in the tire, and we were on our way again. The bump was more pronounced this time, and we stopped and found that part of the tube was pinched. We quickly repaired that on the bike and the rest of the ride was uneventful.

I’ll do some patching and some other light maintenance later today, including a thorough inspection of the tire.

It was really nice to be out this morning. Conversation was about upcoming rides, including our Thanksgiving and Black Friday rides, a Christmas light decoration viewing ride, and of course, the next 200k that is calling my name now that I’m a member of RUSA and DC Rand.